


What I Have to Offer

by FanOfFandoms



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: AU/Speculation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I basically just have a lot of feelings about these movies, Spoilers for NYSM/NYSM2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-07-26 17:13:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7582783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanOfFandoms/pseuds/FanOfFandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Merritt knew, with a fair amount of certainty, that he was the odd one out in their ragtag group of magically inclined criminals.' The Horsemen reflect on each other and their individual purposes in their bizarre little group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Merritt

Merritt knew, with a fair amount of certainty (because he was a mentalist and that’s what mentalists did: they _knew stuff with a fair amount of certainty_ ), that he was the odd one out in their ragtag group of magically inclined criminals. Sure, he was older than the rest, but that wasn’t what set him apart (not always, at least).

The three kids (because that’s what they were, to him) all had their own pasts. He’d deducted that Henley ran away in her teens (and he’d been spot on, thank you very much) and she’d told him her story of a brief but life-changing interaction with a group who were definitively ‘the wrong crowd’ that ended in her parents bailing her out of jail. That was when she had discovered her natural ability of escaping from handcuffs, much to the non-amusement of the police officers who had her in their custody. Her parents had threatened to throw her out after that escapade, so she left before they could and pursued her future career in magic and escapology. This of course led to her meeting one J. Daniel Atlas, who she had initially gotten on with but had then gotten to know as a person; it wasn’t long before she’d had enough of Danny’s jibes (she called him Danny because she knew it annoyed him but didn’t notice when he actually started to enjoy the fact that Henley had a special nickname for him). After a year and a bit (12 months, seven weeks and three days, she always remembered effortlessly, despite not being aware that she had been counting) she left Daniel to make a name for herself as a solo act, which led to a successful career in Los Angeles.

Then there was Jack, who really _was_ a kid (he couldn’t even legally buy alcohol yet and, in Merritt’s book, nothing says ‘child’ more than that little fact). He’d had a pretty awful childhood that featured brief (and sometimes not-so-brief) spells of homelessness and a father who wasn’t physically abusive but who cared so little for Jack that the kid might as well not have been there at all. His mother had died so long ago Jack couldn’t remember how she had treated him, but he remembered a kind face and a soothing voice, so she can’t have been all bad. Unlike Henley, his pickpocketing abilities were not a talent but had come from years of having to survive off his own back; perfection comes from practice and Jack had had a _lot_ of practice. He truly did idolise Daniel, which Merritt found odd because the two couldn’t be more different, yet the dedication Jack put in to mastering everything Danny taught him (be it directly or indirectly) really was sort of touching, and Merritt put it down to the fact that Jack had never really had a father figure worthy of being idolised.

Then there was, of course, the famous, yet mysterious, J. Daniel Atlas, whose name was a mystery in itself: he stubbornly refused to tell any of the Horsemen what the ‘J’ stood for; not even Henley knew, which drove Merritt insane because he was supposed to _know things_ and he just couldn’t work out what that ‘J’ was in place of. In the few months that Merritt had known him, he had discovered several things about Daniel: 1. That he most definitely was a control freak which meant that 2. He was incredibly specific about anything and everything he ever did, meaning that 3. He reacted very badly if things didn’t work out how he wanted them to in the respect that, in these events, 4. He had frequent panic attacks.

Merritt had discovered all of this about Daniel on one fateful day when the showman had been sick with the flu and Henley had put on her ‘scary face’ (which truly was terrifying), stubbornly refusing to let him come to a rehearsal for a show they were doing in Florida to spread their name around a bit. They had left him alone in their apartment and went to rehearsal; when Merritt returned that evening with Henley and Jack, he was burdened with the task of taking some freshly made chicken soup to Daniel after Henley insisted on purchasing it from, in her words, a ‘quaint little café’. He entered Daniel’s room to find the man sat on the floor, hugging his knees to his chest, surrounded by plans for their show with tear tracks on his face and his breaths coming in short, irregular gasps for air. Merritt had panicked for a second before abandoning the soup on Daniel’s desk and slowly guiding the man back to sanity with quiet words of comfort and a strong arm around his shoulders. When he was calm enough to function properly, Daniel explained (of his own accord, which shocked Merritt slightly) that his mother had rather aggressive obsessive compulsive disorder that she passed onto him in the form of needing to be in control at all times because otherwise people might do things wrong and how can something wrong be successful? Merritt assured him that no one would judge him but that he’d keep Daniel’s past and present a secret if that’s what he wanted.

“Thanks,” Daniel had replied, looking away from Merritt almost sheepishly. Then a small smirk appeared on his face as he looked back, “And the ‘J’ stands for Jeremiah.” Merritt’s eyes had widened.

“Really?!” he’d asked, shocked. Daniel’s smirk grew as he snorted.

“Of course not,” he replied, “My parents actually wanted me to be successful in life. Have you ever heard of a famous Jeremiah?!”

Merritt had thrown a few choice hand gestures his way, leaving the man alone again with orders to eat his soup and get better so that he could dictate their rehearsals once again.

All of the information Merritt knew regarding the other Horsemen allowed him to know, with a fair amount of certainty, that he was the odd one out. Of course he had a rather displeasing past, just as the others did, but they didn’t know what it was like to have something and lose it. Merritt had lost everything he had because his own brother turned on him. Sure, that’s a clear indicator of a dysfunctional family, but that was something the McKinneys had never been.

Merritt had grown up in a little suburban house on a quiet little street. He had loving parents who always supported him and his twin brother in all their endeavours. Merritt sometimes found it strange as a child that he and his brother could be so similar and yet simultaneously so different.

When they’d discovered mentalism together, Merritt and his brother had dazzled their friends by doing reads on strangers they saw in the town. When one of the group then interrogated said strangers about what Merritt or Chase had inferred from their body language and attitude and general attire (though they told their friends it was mind reading, because that was far more impressive) they found that they had been completely right and Merritt’s confidence grew.

Then he’d discovered hypnosis and it was wild and exciting and something completely outside his comfort zone but with his friends feeding his ego, he found it surprisingly easy to grasp enough confidence to hypnotise someone effectively. Over time, his confidence grew more, and when he got to college he started using his little tricks to make money and get girls. He guessed (his memory of those years was foggy at best) that this was when his brother first started to get jealous of the fact that maybe Merritt was better than he was. Obviously, he didn’t let anything on and despite his mentalism skills Merritt couldn’t sense even the slightest change in his brother’s behaviour. He dropped out halfway through his second year of college, appointed his brother as his manager and started planning for a career that would bring him fame and fortune.

It took five years, but eventually Merritt’s name was passed around until he was America’s next great hypnotist. His first shows were bigger than any he’d had before but still small in terms of show business. He stayed in California, mostly, because anything will pass there, growing more and more famous with each show because he was _good_ at what he did and people appreciated that. At the age of twenty seven, he was offered his first tour and it was absolutely huge. He remembered crying like a five year old girl when his brother rang him with the news, immediately calling his parents to tell them. They told him they were proud and that everyone in his hometown was talking about him.

He wished he’d known then how quickly his time in the spotlight would end; maybe then he could have minimised the damage somewhat. He’d been touring the US on and off for six years and one day, he went to pay for his lunch from his credit card to have it denied. Luckily, the waitress and her manager were fans of his and said he could have his food on the house. He went straight to an ATM to find his account empty. It was void of any money he’d made in the last twelve years. He called his bank, who said that his money had been transferred, with the permission of ‘Mr McKinney’, into another account. Apparently, Merritt himself had gone in with ID to approve the transaction.

Merritt returned to the apartment he had been sharing with his brother to find a note written in said brother’s identifiable scrawling handwriting:

 

_Sorry, bro._

 

Merritt had never spoken to his brother again, disappearing for a number of years before going back to his college ways, using mentalism and hypnotism to make money, except, this time, he made a point of making sure that no one he met would be screwed over by someone they loved. He stayed true to this up to the day he received his invitation from the Eye, making sure that the woman who came into the café with her cheating husband wouldn’t have both her marriage and her relationship with her sister ruined.

In truth, the only reason he agreed to join the Horsemen at first was because they would be returning things to those who had lost them, restoring justice to those who had been cheated. If Merritt was to be remembered for anything, he wanted to be remembered for helping people escape the fate he himself had fallen prey to. The respect, and then love, that he held for the other Horsemen came later but only intensified his need to stop people getting hurt.

Merritt knew, with a fair amount of certainty, that he was the odd one out in their ragtag group of magically inclined criminals. Not because he was older, or because his act was all educated guessing and people skills and no actual precision or control, or because he had had his fair share of ups and downs in life.

Merritt was different because he was the one who reminded the other Horsemen that they still had something to lose. He was there to make sure they never forgot that, no matter how famous or successful you get, it can all come crashing down to nothing. And that was something none of the other Horsemen could offer.


	2. Jack

Jack Wilder felt insignificant on a near daily basis when in the company of the other Horsemen. Not only was he the youngest, he was the most inexperienced of the four which, in Daniel’s eyes particularly, meant that he was the most expendable.

This, however, was far from the case and Jack knew this very well. He had come to learn over the years that everyone had some kind of purpose. His, he had decided long ago, was to make people laugh.

Being the sleight that he was, Jack was particularly good at violating the safety of people’s pockets. Whilst it was frankly laughably easy for him to sneak things out of pockets and bags (which he did to Merritt at least once a day because it was hilarious), it was just as easy for him to slip things into them; that was where the fun began for the whole group.

It was six months into their year of planning for their big heists that Jack decided that the tension around them was just too much. Daniel had, if it were possible, become even more of a control freak in the half a year since they’d all met, which resulted in hours upon hours of rehearsal and taking notes and double-, triple-, quadruple- and quintuple-checking. Merritt would deliberately make fun of him to piss him off, which ended in a shouting match and the two parties storming to their rooms and ignoring each other (save for their constant snide comments and condescending looks) for days. Henley would somehow work him into arguments that almost qualified on the Richter scale due to their earth-shattering properties, which ended in Merritt and Jack leaving the apartment in the hope that _their_ possessions, at least, would be in one piece when they returned. As for Jack, he was the only one who didn’t really annoy Daniel (though that didn’t stop the older magician from chastising him for every single mistake he made with a comment like ‘how can you expect to be accepted into the Eye when you make such ridiculous errors?!’).

With all of these aspects of the Horsemen’s lives adding up to a stiflingly tense atmosphere around them 98% of the time, Jack set out to create the Most Awesomely Tension-Shattering Group of Perfectly Executed Pranks of All Time Ever.

Phase One: Attack of the Dobby.

This started with a missing sock. More accurately: it started with Jack _stealing_ a sock when Daniel was out on the weekly shopping trip.

It was a well-known fact that Daniel had to have things the way they were supposed to be at all times, be it making sure all of the knives, forks and spoons were in their respective sections of the cutlery drawer or ensuring that every aspect of each of their shows went without flaw. So, it was no surprise to Jack (who had laughed at how easy it had been to break into Daniel’s room) when he found fifteen pairs of socks, rolled into meticulously neat balls and arranged in lines of three (gaps to the right of the third line and in the middle of the fifth where Daniel had obviously worn socks recently) to the left of the second drawer down in the chest at the side of Daniel’s room. Said socks, Jack noticed, had been arranged in order of shade (the lightest grey in the top left hand corner, the black at the bottom right) and there was nothing more colourful than charcoal grey in sight.

Looking down at his own socked feet, the left sock orange with a hole encircling the top of his big toe, the right bright green decorated with red and white striped stockings, Jack was glad that Daniel’s control freak-ed-ness stretched to the lengths shown in the sock drawer before him; if he’d been even slightly more messy then Jack’s job would be a heck of a lot harder.

With this in mind, Jack quickly stripped off his Christmassy sock, pulling out a random pair from the middle of Daniel’s arranged assortment, undoing the ball and replacing one of the mid-grey socks with his own. Taking not quite enough effort to make sure the socks were put back looking remotely like he’d found them (because, Jack figured, Daniel was _supposed_ to find out that one of his socks was missing, _that was the point_ ), Jack put everything back (just about) where he found it and made his quick and sneaky exit.

The next part of Phase One was implemented ten minutes later, when Jack saw Merritt.

It was all too easy for the sleight to slip his newly-acquired sock into the man’s jacket, especially seeing as Henley had just pulled him (literally) out of bed and forced him to get dressed. Jack smirked slightly as he followed Merritt into the kitchen.

“Dude!” he exclaimed, clapping him on the shoulder with one hand whilst using the other to slip the sock into his pocket, “It’s, like, four in the afternoon! How can you sleep for that long?!”

“A well-polished combination of pissing Daniel off, booze and practice,” Merritt muttered in reply, setting about to make himself a coffee.

Jack left the room, his smirk widening further.

He put Phase Two into action immediately: Operation Escape the Escape Artist (honestly, Jack figured he should have been a spy or something, his plan was _genius_...).

Phase One of his plan involved getting Daniel pissed at Merritt; Phase Two needed Henley to be mad at Daniel. And what did Henley hold most dear?

Her gloves, obviously.

But, additional to that, Henley cared about her style: she cared about what she looked like. Sure, her gloves were part of that, but what Henley _really_ cared about was her _entire wardrobe._

Which was how, an hour later, all of Henley’s clothes were somehow (and Jack had _absolutely no idea_ how this could have happened) spread across the roof of their apartment building; Jack had kept a single glove aside, however, to (badly) hide in Daniel’s room. Hanging up in her wardrobe in place of her clothes were the sheets of fabric she used in her performances occasionally, which had previously been locked aware in a storage cupboard labelled ‘IMPORTANT MAGIC ITEMS; DO NOT TOUCH WITHOUT DANIEL’S PERMISSION’. Jack had honestly found the small, average padlock on the door quite insulting.

It did, however, place suspicion on Daniel, because Jack had promised that he wouldn’t use his pickpocketing skills unless it was necessary for a show, and would Jack _ever_ go back on a promise?

Well, the important thing was that he could _act_ like he’d never go back on a promise, and so key-holding Daniel, who was unknowingly in possession of one of the woman’s precious gloves for no apparent reason, was Henley’s only possible suspect, getting Jack out of the line of fire. Which led to Phase Three: Operation ANSA (Alcoholics Not-So Anonymous).

Merritt had made it painfully clear that his average daily alcohol intake was roughly a mile over way-too-much; wherever Merritt went, alcohol was sure to follow. Merritt often likened his addiction to ‘a deranged, insane and clingy ex-wife who gives very, _very_ good sex’.

It doesn’t really need to be said that he was drunk at the time this statement was made.

This gave Jack the perfect opportunity to make sure Merritt had a bone to pick with Henley: the aim of Phase Three.

Having been rudely awoken from his slumber, it didn’t take Merritt long to fall asleep again on the sofa, as Henley got in the shower at the perfect moment (Jack couldn’t believe how many things had gone his way, it was frankly _astounding_ that his insanely complicated and near-impossible plan hadn’t been ruined yet). Enter Jack, who spent the next twenty minutes (the _whole_ twenty minutes) collecting up every form of container that held any alcohol in the entire apartment.

It took him six trips to stow all of the bottles, cans and glasses on top of Henley’s wardrobe, hidden behind some storage boxes she had up there; he left the room, closing the door quietly behind him (though he doubted the female Horseman would have heard it over her singing) just as Daniel returned with the shopping.

Jack casually strolled towards the front door, raising his eyebrows as a soaking wet Daniel staggered in with eighteen shopping bags.

“I don’t care what Henley says,” the man muttered, “Next time, I’m taking the car, even if the store is only down the street.”

“So, er...” Jack grinned, “Is it raining outside?” which was a genuine question, because it _hadn’t_ been raining when he’d hidden Henley’s clothes.

Daniel glared at him. “Just put this lot away, would you?” he grumbled, “I need to change.”

Jack nodded, picking up a few of the bags Daniel had just dumped on the floor as the Showman walked through to his bedroom to swap his wet clothes for dry ones. As he walked through the living room, he nudged Merritt with his foot, waking the man.

“Wait, what?” Merritt said, looking around confusedly.

“Daniel’s home,” Jack told him, carrying on into the kitchen, “Just thought I’d warn you.” Merritt rolled his eyes.

“Oh, joy!” he said sarcastically, standing up and stretching, “God, I need a drink...”

And in the space of three minutes, Jack’s plan fell into place as perfectly as it could have done.

Daniel picked out a certain medium-grey pair of socks.

Henley got out of the shower and moved towards her wardrobe to get out a new set of clothes.

Merritt went looking for the drink he supposedly needed to deal with Daniel’s presence.

And Jack waited, putting the shopping away as normally as he could manage, the grin on his face growing by the second.

Silence spread throughout the apartment as Jack’s three victims took in what had happened. Then:

**_“Where is my other sock?!”_ **

**_“Where are my_ clothes _?!”_**

**_“Where is all my booze?!”_ **

The three suddenly communed in the living room, Daniel barefooted but now in dry clothes, Henley wrapped in a towel with her wet hair dripping onto the carpet and Merritt looking strangely sober.

“Whose sock is this?!” Daniel demanded, holding up the bright green Christmas sock that Jack suddenly had an intense attachment to.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Jack said, walking through from the kitchen, “I’ve been looking for that everywhere. Thanks, Daniel.”

“No, no, that wasn’t my point,” Daniel said, glaring at the sock in Jack’s hand, “My _point_ is _where is **my** sock_?!”

“Yes, Danny, because that is totally more important than the disappearance of _all my clothes_!” Henley snapped, “Where are they?! This obviously wasn’t an _accident_ so tell me where they are and no one will get seriously hurt.”

“Yes, yes, your problems are very touching and, I assure you, you’re next in line,” Merritt said, his voice deadly quiet, “But if I don’t get a drink soon, I’m going to start flipping shit.”

“Woah, woah, guys,” Jack held his hands up, finding it more and more difficult to hide his smirk as their anger progressed, “I’m sure this is all a total misunderstanding...”

“ _No one_ touches my socks, _ever_.”

“ _All_ my clothes, Jack!”

“Good _God_ , I need a drink!”

“Look, we’ll have a look around,” Jack said, “Maybe everything will turn up?”

No one could fault Jack’s plan (because how could they with his innocent little face) and so the group set about searching the apartment, Henley borrowing some pyjama bottoms and an old t-shirt of Daniel’s until her clothes were found. After three quarters of an hour and no discoveries (god, were these people _blind_ , Jack would have found everything _ages_ ago... had he wanted to), Daniel was on the brink of a nervous breakdown, Henley was seething and Merritt was having withdrawal symptoms.

“I swear to god, Merritt, if this is you playing some dumbass trick to try and be funny...” Daniel growled.

“Oh please, don’t flatter yourself,” Merritt bit back, “Why would I want one of your socks?!”

“I don’t know, why don’t _you_ tell _me_?” Daniel retorted.

“What, do you want to search me?!” Merritt challenged, “Please!” he exclaimed, opening his arms welcomingly, “Be. My. Guest.”

Daniel wasted no time in taking the man up on his offer and Jack watched, barely hiding his glee as he slipped his hand into the pocket that currently hid the sock.

Daniel froze for a moment before pulling the sock out, looking between it and Merritt with a semi-shocked, semi-triumphant expression on his face. Merritt was blinking quickly, his already fragile mind confused by this sudden turn of events.

“I’d love to say that I can explain,” he managed to utter after a moment, “But I haven’t got a clue how that got in there.”

“Oh, sure,” Daniel snarled, “You have been _waiting_ for me to be out the way so that you could do something like this!”

“Oh, of course!” Merritt argued back angrily, “Because, if I were to steal something of yours, _of course_ I would hide in my _own_ pocket! That’s a totally logical thing to do!” Before Daniel could reply or even react, Henley’s voice rang out through the entire apartment complex.

“ _Jonathan Daniel Atlas, where are my clothes?!”_ the three men looked confusedly at each other (only two of them _genuinely_ confused, of course) before rushing to where Henley was stood in Daniel’s room.

“What?” Daniel said tentatively after a moment of her staring at them.

“Danny,” Henley said, her tone deadly, “Where. Are. My. Clothes?”

“I have no idea,” Daniel said, looking confused, “Why would I know wh-” Henley held up the single glove that Jack had left peeking out from one of the drawers of Daniel’s bedside table, cutting him off.

“This,” Henley said, shaking the glove to prove her point, “Was in _your_ drawer, in _your_ room. So, _logically_ , it would make sense to assume that you know where the rest of my clothes are. Plus, you’re the only one with the key to the store cupboard, which is where my fabric was, and my fabric is where my clothes _should_ be. So, please, tell me right this second where they are before I _rip every hair out of your head with a toothpick._ ”

“I don’t know how that glove got in here and I haven’t been in the store cupboard for weeks,” Daniel said defensively, “And honestly, I’m hurt that you’d accuse me of-”

“Oh, come off it, Danny, we all know you’re such a control freak that you know every inch of this room, back to front, to the _centimetre_ ,” Henley snapped, “Like you ‘wouldn’t know’ how my glove got in here!”

“You say that as if it’s a bad thing,” Daniel retorted, “I don’t know where your stupid clothes are, Henley, and I don’t appreciate you criticising how I live _my_ life.”

“Oh, join the club,” Merritt muttered. Henley turned to him.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?!” she demanded. Merritt snorted humourlessly.

“Just that you can’t go eight minutes without making some kind of comment on my drinking habits,” Merritt said. He frowned slightly, “Now that I think about it...” he continued, “You’ve been telling me to cut down on my alcohol for weeks. What, did you think you’d just take it into your own hands?”

“What?!” Henley exclaimed, “You can’t seriously be suggesting that _I_ took all your drink!”

“I’m not just suggesting it,” Merritt said, “Who else would it be?! Daniel’s been out all day and Jack doesn’t care! You were so desperate to get me out of my room earlier... making sure I didn’t have anything stashed away, were you?”

“You’re being ridiculous...”

“Oh, so Merritt’s ridiculous but _you’re_ not? Figures...”

“Shut _up_ , Daniel!”

“Yeah, Daniel, shut up!”

“Merritt, you’re lucky that I haven’t literally torn your head off.”

“ _I didn’t steal your damn sock!_ ”

“Then how did it get in your pocket?!”

“No one cares about your sock, Daniel, _where are my clothes_?!”

As the argument continued in a similar fashion, Jack found that he couldn’t keep it in any longer and burst out laughing. The other three didn’t quite clock his reaction at first, but eventually fell silent to stare at the youngest Horseman in confusion.

“Okay, I give up,” Merritt said after a moment, “What’s funny?”

“You guys!” Jack gasped, still laughing, “You’re all so dumb!”

The three didn’t say anything for a moment before Daniel sighed, “It was him.” He said, gesturing towards Jack, “He did it.”

“Did what?” Henley asked, her anger still drifting away but very much present.

“Everything,” Merritt continued for Daniel, looking at Jack with some newfound respect, “The sock, your clothes, my alcohol... he did the lot.”

“ _Why_?!” Henley asked, now addressing Jack, “What was the point in that?! To piss us all off?!” Jack had just about stopped laughing and rolled his eyes.

“The tension in this place has been ridiculous over the last few weeks,” he said, “It was too much to deal with. So I took your stuff and planted it on other people and it made you all argue in a big circle and you didn’t even _notice_ that I hadn’t been affected!” he started chuckling again, before this progressed into more full-on laughing.

It was infectious enough that, soon after, Merritt was laughing as well, followed by Henley and then Daniel, despite the fact that they didn’t have all that much to laugh about.

Just like that the tension was gone; Jack had not only made them all laugh, but he’d unintentionally got them to address several issues affecting the group (Daniel’s being a control freak, for instance, and Merritt drinking too much, as well as Henley being slightly judgemental about the other Horsemen’s lifestyle choices).

When they’d eventually all stopped laughing, Merritt clapped Jack on the shoulder, “That was a good prank, kid,” he congratulated him, “Nice work.” He and Henley then looked at him expectantly.

“What?” Jack asked after a moment.

“Where’s my booze?” Merritt said, all traces of laughter gone. Jack grinned.

“On top of Henley’s wardrobe.” He answered.

Merritt sighed, facepalming, “The one place I didn’t look...”

“And my clothes?” Henley pressed. Jack made a face.

“They may be slightly damp?” he offered, “I left them on the roof. In my defence,” he continued hurriedly at the look of outrage on Henley’s face, “It wasn’t raining when I put them out there and I tried to put them in enclosed places.” Henley growled, storming out of the room.

Jack turned worriedly to Daniel, “She’s going to kill me, isn’t she?” he asked.

Daniel smirked, “Call it karma for messing with my socks.” He said, clapping Jack’s shoulder. Merritt moved to walk alongside him as they left the room.

“So, your first name is _Jonathon_?!” Merritt asked him, “God, how did I not get that?! That’s such a boringly average name, exactly your type...”

Daniel frowned deeply, throwing a glare at Jack over his shoulder.

Jack’s grin simply widened in response; even if the others hadn’t got all that much fun out of it, the Most Awesomely Tension-Shattering Group of Perfectly Executed Pranks of All Time Ever had given him a laugh and had definitely shattered the tension.

In his eyes, that was Mission: Accomplished.


End file.
